Crazy Weather

Crazy Weather

Pictured above is a young vine from a few years ago.   You can see the delicate flowers that emerge from the center of the plant.   This "bud" break is what we try to protect from cold weather.   

We have had the craziest weather with differences up to 40 degrees between night and day.   If we look around, you will see flowers and buds beginning to form on several species of plants.  

It is way too early for our vineyard to be subjected to these warm days as we have been known to have freezing temperatures up to April.  We have almost 2 months to get through before it's safe for our vines. 

We are in the process of rough pruning our vines.  This procedure leaves a longer cane than what is required.   Grape vines bud break from the furthest tip and move inward.  By leaving more cane the plant will start to bud from the outmost point (which is something we don't need) which preserves the buds we need to make wine.   The outer buds are damaged then we just prune them away.  This works if you have warm temperatures somewhat near when your last frost is, however, we are almost 2 months away from that date.   We shall see how quickly cooler temperatures move back in.